Shōrai
Photo: Sailko / CC BY-SA 3.0, modified.
Overview
The Japanese Garden in Florence’s Giardino delle Rose is known as Giardino Shorai or Shorai-Teien. It was created in 1998 by Japanese architect Yasuo Kitayama and donated to Florence by its sister city Kyoto and the Zen temple Kōdai-ji. The garden forms a small international Japanese section within the larger historic Rose Garden below Piazzale Michelangelo.
History
The wider Giardino delle Rose was created in the nineteenth century as part of Florence’s urban transformation around Piazzale Michelangelo. It was laid out by Giuseppe Poggi in the 1860s and later developed by Attilio Pucci as a terraced rose garden, opening to the public in 1895 during the Arts and Flowers festival.
The Japanese garden was added in 1998, when Yasuo Kitayama chose the Giardino delle Rose as the site for a Japanese garden named Shorai. Florence municipal press material states that the garden was donated to Florence by the City of Kyoto and the Zen temple Kōdai-ji. The addition reflected the sister-city relationship between Florence and Kyoto and inserted a compact Japanese contemplative space into an existing European rose garden.
The garden later underwent restoration work after a period of neglect. A 2012 local photo report describes the Giardino Shorai as being under restoration, with gardeners from Tokyo working for two months to recover the form of the Japanese garden.
Design features
The garden is a small Japanese oasis within a larger terraced rose garden. Available sources describe it as Shorai, a refined Japanese garden donated from Kyoto and Kōdai-ji. Because it is a compact symbolic garden embedded inside a rose garden rather than a standalone stroll, tea or dry garden, it is best classified as a modern hybrid Japanese garden.
Garden elements
Bridges
Buildings
Enclosures
Stones
Other elements
Current status
Extant small Japanese garden within Florence’s public Rose Garden. It remains accessible during the opening hours of the Giardino delle Rose.